Dr. Joseph Verdun never wanted to leave his mansion in the Boston-Edison section of Detroit, a short drive away from his closest friends and nestled in a city offering diverse cultural fare.

But his wife, child psychiatrist Harriette Green, worried about the safety of their four children. After they tallied their expenses — the tuition they spent for private schools, auto insurance, city and property taxes — he realized they’d get more for their money in the suburbs. He gave in.

“It’s a sacrifice you make for your kids, so you have peace of mind and they can go to better schools,” Verdun said. “But they don’t have a lot of friends where we live, and that’s a problem.”

In Bloomfield Hills, the couple found serenity, safety and first-rate city services — a world less stressful than the one they knew in Detroit. But life in this predominantly white suburb has been hard on them in other ways: They feel isolated (there is one other black family in their neighborhood), their children were ostracized in middle school, and making connections with other African-Americans means trekking to Detroit on the weekends.

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